Palestinian Elections & Government:
Legislative Elections

(January 2006)

Hamas,
the Islamic Resistance Movement, won
a majority of the 132 seats available in
the Palestinian
Legislative Councilelections,
beating the ruling party Fatah 76-43.
For the elections, 66 PLC seats could be
won by proportional representation, and
Hamas won 30 of these seats to Fatah's 27.
The remainder of the seats were reserved
for district representatives, and Hamas
won a majority in all but two of the 16
districts in the West
Bank and Gaza
Strip.

The Palestinian
Authority Central Elections
Commission (CEC) announced that 1,011,992
people voted out of a registered population
of 1,332,396. The voting percentage
was 74.64%. The total number of voters
in all West Bank districts was 582,471
(73.1%) and
in Gaza electoral districts 429,521 (76%.).
The Rafah electoral district had
the highest percentage of voter (82.65%).
A total of
414 candidates competed for the 16 electoral districts
and there were 11 electoral lists with 314 candidates
competing nationwide.

In Ramallah, the district where the
Palestinian government is located, and a Fatah stronghold,
Hamas won four seats to Fatah's one. In east Jerusalem,
where 6 PLC seats were available, Hamas defeated Fatah
4-2. Supporters of the group raised the Hamas flag over
the Palestinian parliament building Hamas also won decisive
victories in the two largest of the districts, Hebron and Gaza City, where the group took all of the available
seats.

In a surprising turn of events following
the early acknowledgment of a Hamas victory, Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia and his cabinet resigned from their positions.
Qureia, who said that the vote was “the choice
of the people” and that it “should be respected,” apparently
resigned to pave the way for Hamas' ascension to leadership
of the government.

Palestinian
Authority President Mahmoud
Abbas was elected separately in 2005,
and was not affected by this vote. United
States Secretary of State Condoleezza
Rice called Abbas, and urged him
to stay in office and not resign. If
Abbas does stay in office, his next
task is to appoint a prime minister
to form a cabinet approved by the new
parliament.

Even though the U.S. has
clearly stated that it will not have a relationship
with Hamas ministers in the Palestinian
government, President Bush said he was pleased with
the democratic process. Bush stated, “You
see, when you give people the vote, you
give people a chance to express themselves
at the polls, they — and if they're
unhappy with the status quo, they'll let
you know.”

Bush also described the election day,
one that concluded without major violence, to be a positive
step for democracy. However, the Hamas victory could
be seen as a major blow to the Bush administration's
foreign policy plan for the Middle East. When PA officials
realized Hamas was going to make a serious run at candidacy
and might win, the initial thought was to postpone elections.
The Bush administration however, firmly stated that
free elections and the democratic process were top priorities
because according to Bush, “democracy yields peace.”
The administration is in effect somewhat responsible
for pushing forward with the elections that have placed
Hamas in the majority.

Hamas' victory could place the U.S.,
who contributes nearly $250 million annually to the
PA, in an awkward position. The U.S. must now find creative
ways to bypass Hamas ministers and meet only with Mahmoud
Abbas and members of Fatah. Unless Hamas disarms and
dismantles its terrorist infrastructure, the peace process
under the confines of the Bush-backed road
map cannot move beyond phase one, which calls for
a complete cessation of terrorism.